| Barnes' Notes on the Bible Your house - The temple. The house of worship of the Jews. The chief ornament of Jerusalem. Desolate - About to be desolate or destroyed. To be forsaken as a place of worship, and delivered into the hands of the Romans, and destroyed. See the notes at Matthew 24.
Clarke's Commentary on the BibleBehold, your house - Ο οικος, the temple: - this is certainly what is meant. It was once the Lord's temple, God's Own house; but now he says, Your temple or house - to intimate that God had abandoned it. See the note on Matthew 23:21; see also on Luke 13:35 (note).
Gill's Exposition of the Entire BibleBehold your house is left unto you desolate. Signifying that the city in which they dwelt, where they had their ceiled houses, and stately palaces, would, in a little time, within the space of forty years, be destroyed, and become a desert; and the temple, formerly the house of God, but now only their's, and in which they trusted, would be abandoned by God, he would grant his presence no more in it; and the Messiah, the proprietor of it, and who was now in it, would then take his leave of it, and never more return to it; and that also should share the same fate as the city, and at the same time. Our Lord seems to have in view those passages in Jeremiah 12:7 and which the Jewish (o) writers understood of the temple. The author of the apocryphal the second book of Esdras has much such an expression as this: "Thus saith the Almighty Lord, Your house is desolate, I will cast you out as the wind doth stubble.'' (2 Esdras 1:33). (o) Targum & Kimchi in Jeremiah 12.7.
Geneva Study BibleBehold, your house is left unto you desolate.
People's New Testament 23:38 Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. This was the consequence of refusing to come to Christ. The temple is the house meant. God will abandon it and leave it desolate. He will no longer accept its worship.
Wesley's Notes 23:38 Behold your house - The temple, which is now your house, not God's: Is left unto you - Our Lord spake this as he was going out of it for the last time: Desolate - Forsaken of God and his Christ, and sentenced to utter destruction.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary38. Behold, your house-the temple, beyond all doubt; but their house now, not the Lord's. See on [1353]Mt 22:7. is left unto you desolate-deserted, that is, of its Divine Inhabitant. But who is that? Hear the next words:
Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary23:34-39 Our Lord declares the miseries the inhabitants of Jerusalem were about to bring upon themselves, but he does not notice the sufferings he was to undergo. A hen gathering her chickens under her wings, is an apt emblem of the Saviour's tender love to those who trust in him, and his faithful care of them. He calls sinners to take refuge under his tender protection, keeps them safe, and nourishes them to eternal life. The present dispersion and unbelief of the Jews, and their future conversion to Christ, were here foretold. Jerusalem and her children had a large share of guilt, and their punishment has been signal. But ere long, deserved vengeance will fall on every church which is Christian in name only. In the mean time the Saviour stands ready to receive all who come to him. There is nothing between sinners and eternal happiness, but their proud and unbelieving unwillingness. | 
